


Parallelogram

by prairiecrow



Series: Geometry [22]
Category: Knight Rider (1982), Torchwood
Genre: Adopted Children, Childhood Trauma, Children, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Family, Gen, Happy Ending, Same-Sex Marriage, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-08
Updated: 2014-03-08
Packaged: 2018-01-14 23:43:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1282999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prairiecrow/pseuds/prairiecrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Six hundred years in the future, some things never change: children, bedtime stories, and happy endings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Parallelogram

The thing about Lizzy Beth was, she could be _really_ quiet when she wanted to be. Sometimes she remembered _how_ she'd learned to sneak around on noiseless feet, but mostly she tried not to think about it: those were bad thoughts, full of dark and cold and lonely, and always being scared, and never knowing where her next meal was coming from. They led back to a really bad place, a sad place called _Momma_. Lizzy Beth didn't want to remember those brittle angry shapes or the darkness that had no way out —

— but _this_ was a summer morning, warm yellow sunlight making patterns on the wooden hallway floor through the tall sparkling windows, and she padded through them on her silent bare feet to the end of the white corridor and very quietly, very carefully, pushed open one of the big double doors that led into Daddy and Papa's bedroom — just a crack, just enough to peep inside.

She'd heard Papa get up and head downstairs a little while ago, so she knew he wasn't going to be there. Daddy was, though — and right where Lizzy Beth wanted him, still sprawled on his tummy in bed (Daddy and Papa had a _really_ big bed) with his face buried in a pillow and the sheets pulled up around his bare shoulders. As she silently pushed the door open enough to slip inside he shifted and let out a little snort — but stayed asleep, so she crept around the side of the bed to stand between him and the gauzy-curtained window, looking at the ragged fall of his dark hair across his eyes and the peacefulness of his sleeping face, and loving him so much that her heart felt way too big to fit inside her chest.

Daddy and Papa had saved her, just like the heroes in a fairy tale. She'd been scared of Papa at first, because his eyes were strange and he had lines of bright blue light under his skin, but Daddy had taken one look at her cowering in the garbage of an alleyway while explosions burst overhead — he'd looked right into her eyes, and he'd _seen_ her the way nobody had since Momma — and he'd swooped in and picked her up in his arms, and carried her all the way to a safe place. The safe place was a hospital, and although the doctors and nurses there had been nice to her she'd still been scared until Daddy and Papa came back and told her that she was going to come with them, and live with them for always. She'd leaped up and hugged them both — even Papa, who had turned out to be very gentle, and to smell really _really_ nice.

Not as nice as Daddy, though. Nobody in the world — in all the worlds — was as big and strong and brave and handsome as Daddy, who had saved a planet called Earth long ago and had so many adventures to tell that Lizzy Beth would be grown up before she could hear them all. Norbert, who had just turned twelve, pretended not to care, but Lizzy Beth knew he was still listening while he played games on his InfoPadd, listening to Daddy and Papa tell bedtime stories beside the fire each night, while Lizzy Beth, who was half past six, and Corrine, who was nearly eight, laughed at the funny parts and cheered at the exciting ones and hugged themselves through the scary ones —

— but all the stories were true, and they'd all come out all right, because Daddy and Papa were here in their big sunny house and they'd promised to stay until Lizzy Beth was grown up and had children of her own, at least. And the stories told that Daddy could lie when he wanted to, but Papa never did — when Papa said something, he always spoke true. And seeing the way Daddy's eyes shone when he looked at all their children, even Norbert when he was being a really righteous snot, Lizzy Beth knew that when Daddy said he loved them he meant every single word.

Daddy and Papa's bed was low enough that Lizzy Beth could easily climb into it when bad dreams woke her up, but she reached out first and took hold of Daddy's fringe of hair, pulling it up off his face. "Daddy?"

"Mrphl," Daddy said, and tried to burrow deeper into the pillow and the sheets. That wouldn't do, so Lizzy Beth scrambled up onto the bed and jumped on top of him, landing right on his waist like he was a horse and yelling loud enough to wake up anybody:

"DADDY!"

"Hr-rmph," Daddy complained, and fumbled out his right arm to grab Papa's pillow and pull it over his head — but not before Lizzy Beth saw him smiling.

"Well," a mild voice said from the doorway, "good morning to you too!" Papa was standing there, wearing a blue dressing gown over his favourite pajamas and holding a cup of coffee in each hand: when he wanted to, he could be even quieter than Lizzy Beth. Lizzy Beth grinned at him, carolled a greeting — "Morning, Papa!" — and bounced on Daddy's bottom, making him groan in protest.

Papa smiled, leaned his shoulder against the doorway, and looked at them both with eyes cycling slow happy patterns of red-on-black while speaking to Daddy: "Need I remind you that you brought this on yourself?"

Daddy's voice leaked out from under the pillow — something about "Ganging up on me!" — and he still sounded mostly asleep. Still, Lizzy Beth wasn't fooled, so she wasn't surprised when he suddenly rolled underneath her, throwing off the pillow and tipping her sideways onto the bed and launching one of Jack's Patented Tickle Attacks, laughing just as loudly and happily as she did while she twisted and squealed.

"Honestly, I don't know which of you is the bigger child!" Papa scolded fondly. He was smart enough not to come near the bed while the fight was on, but as soon as Lizzy Beth and Daddy had subsided, both of them still gasping laughter, he came to sit on the edge of the mattress and held out one of the cups to Daddy.

Daddy propped himself up on his left elbow, the arm with the leather wrist strap he never took off, and accepted the cup. He sipped the coffee, smiled at Papa, and waggled his eyebrows at Lizzy Beth, who'd ended up snuggled up next to him. "Want some?"

"Jaaaack," Papa drawled, while Daddy chuckled and Lizzy Beth giggled again, burying her face against Daddy's broad chest — because this was a place where everything was going to be all right, for always.

THE END


End file.
